Ex-Philippine president Aquino remembered for her China bonds

By Xinhua Writer Xu Lingui MANILA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- She was the first woman president in Asia. Her legacy was defined by restoring democracy to the Philippines and ensuring a less corrupt government during her six-year term.





But Corazon "Cory" Aquino, who died on Saturday at the age of 76, was also remembered by Chinese community as a president who openly appreciated her Chinese origin and the first head of state to embark on a "roots-tracing" trip to her ancestral hometown 21 years ago, Chinese-Filipino scholars said. Aquino, the forth generation of Chinese immigrants, was seen in a rare photo speaking to a huge crowd in the tiny village of Hongjian in Fujian province in southeastern China. Clad in typically yellow-colored "Cory T-shirts", two dozen children in the front row raised their heads in awe to this English-speaking auntie, who was said to be a great-granddaughter from the neighborhood.
Like millions of other small traders in coastal China, Aquino's great grandfather Xu Yuhuan -- known as Jose Cojuangco to Filipinos left his hometown in Fujian province and sailed to the Philippine shore. In 1861, the Cojuangcos started by running a small rice and sugar mill in central Luzon but soon found themselves grow into one of the country's richest families.
Born in 1933 in Manila, Maria Corazon Cojuangco had never returned to her ancestral hometown until the second year of her presidency. She insisted to visit Hongjian village on her first state visit to China in April 1988, Research Director of the Bahay Tsinoy Museum Go Bon Juan told Xinhua
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